It is no longer enough to satisfy your customers. You must delight them.- Philip Kotler
I mean. Philip Kotler. Really I could just stop there...but I won't. Because if you're a marketer in any facet, and you don't know the "Father of Modern Marketing Philip Kotler," then I owe it to you to introduce you to him.
There are a number of reasons I love and follow Kotler, so many, in fact, that it's probably just easier to bullet point some of my top highlights for you:
- he was born, lives, got his Master's at and teaches (at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern) in my beloved Chicago-land (best place in the U.S.)
- he has a PhD from MIT and did post-doctoral at Harvard and University of Chicago (so smart)
- he has written more than SIXTY books (again. so. smart.)
- he's bridged the concepts of economics and marketing (two things I am wildly fascinated with)
- he won American Marketing Association's (AMA's) Marketing for a Better World award (love it)
- I have a secret-almost-crush on him (like in a grandfatherly way...he's smart, funny, charismatic, and totally adorbs)